Glucoaster.

You know you're in for an interesting night's sleep when you start with...

Positive ketones and a blood sugar of 18.6 and then at 3am you end up with...

 

An empty tube of glucose tabs having consumed the five remaining after a blood sugar of 2.6! 

Tired for my 9am seminar would be an understatement!

Yay for coffee! 

In It Together.

Last night, I'd set an alarm to check my blood sugar at around 3am. I was at 18.9mmol before bed and had trace ketones, so I wanted to check my blood sugar again to make sure I was coming down, as well as check again for ketones.

The alarm went off. I reached my arm out from the warmth of my duvet cover and grabbed my diabetes bag. Eyes still shut, I unzipped it and found my meter, test strips and finger pricker (what's the technical term for that?!) Test strip inserted, I pricked my finger and waited the 5 seconds for a result to be displayed.

4.7mmol.

I was no longer sky-high.

I had a couple of jelly babies to top-up and then psyched myself up to actually get up from my bed to test for ketones. For me, ketone tests come in the form of the little strips you have to pee on. 

Classy, huh?! 

Ketones: negative. Seeing as I was in the bathroom, I also gave my teeth a quick clean after the jelly babies. 

I rushed back to bed, desperate to be warm again, and looked at my phone. I had two messages. 

One was from Lopez, who lives in the US. It's pretty normal for me to wake up in the morning to messages from her. 

The other was from Lizzie.

Now, Lizzie and I text pretty much everyday. And although diabetes makes up part of the conversation, our friendship has extended beyond that - it's more than diabetes.

23.54 (19/11/13) - "18.9 and trace ketones :( corrected and alarm set for 3am to sugar and ketone test again! Too tired for this shit! Stupid garlic bread with dinner. I just need to avoid bread. I know it's my food nemesis!"

03.16 (20/11/13) - "How you doing ha? Just woke to a 17.1. Correction and pants much!"

03.38 (20/11/13) - "4.7 and ketone free. Just had a couple of jelly babies. I'm cold now I've got out of bed though! We're such a pair!"

As sucky as living with diabetes is, moments like this make me smile. Don't get me wrong, I'm not smiling at the fact Lizzie had a 17.1 or the fact that I had to wake up to check my blood sugars were stable and that I was ketone free. But it's the comfort, so to speak, of knowing that, even when things are really shit, there's always someone there, someone that "gets it". That's pretty darn awesome, and something I will never take for granted.    

Sky High.

I'm a very nervous flyer. My blood sugar levels rocket to prove it too. Today...yesterday...I don't even know when my body's so out-of-whack right now, I sat on a plane for 10 hours: the time it took for the journey from London Gatwick to Stanford, Florida. And my sugar levels were sky-high throughout the journey.

I began my day at 5.30am GMT on a lovely 6.6mmol/l. 

On arrival at the airport, the nerves were setting in and before breakfast I was at 12.1mmol/l so I took some extra insulin with my pain au chocolat.

An hour into the flight I was at 13.4mmol/l. 

When they came round with lunch around midday I was at 12.6. Again, I took a correction dose with my mealtime insulin.

I actually managed to get some sleep after lunch, for about 3 hours, and I woke up on a 5.6! Yay! But then as soon as I woke up and remembered I was on a plane I shot straight back up to 14.7.

Towards the end of our flight we were given sandwiches and scones (very English!) 13.8 before. Correction with normal insulin dose, yet again!

And, like always, as soon as we touched down and I was no longer in the air, my blood sugar came down to a lovely 5.5. Hello, happy dance!

We made it! Now for the American Adventures to begin!